The timing device of the present invention is for use with live animal traps so as to determine the time of animal capture. Inventor Ronald E. Barry Jr.'s interest in niche overlap among syntopic small mammals stimulated the need to examine temporal, circadian relationships among such potential competitors. Drickamer and Capone* (1977) and Drickamer (1987) have suggested, for instance, that Peromyscus leucopus and P. maniculatus in Massachusetts, U.S.A. partition time and thus reduce the potential for competition where they coexist. * Citations of literature cited are presented in Table 1 below. Copies of the literature are made part of the patent prosecution file history.
Recording the time of capture of small mammals in live traps should provide meaningful information on circadian rhythms (i.e., activity peaks). The use of traps to generate such information has several advantages over other techniques, such as radio telemetry, since trapping is less expensive and labor intensive per individual of the population monitored. Although telemetry provides more information for any individual studied, more individuals can be observed simultaneously in a trapping study.
Several prior art timers have been designed for use in determining small mammal activity in trapping studies. However, assembly, accuracy, and size of these prior art timers, and difficulty or length of time required to read these prior art timers, are problems overcome by the present invention. It should be noted that these factors are of great importance to mammalogists who may use 100 or more live animal traps at one time. These prior art references are also presented in Table 1 below.